A data storage medium comprises a substrate supporting one or more layers made of different materials, including a data storage layer. For example, an optical data storage medium comprises a data storage layer adapted to optically store data, a magnetic data storage medium comprises a data storage layer adapted to magnetically store data, and a phase-change memory comprises a data storage layer adapted to store data on a basis of electrical resistivity values.
The data storage layer is typically made of a single material. This material, which may be a phase-change material (e.g., a chalcogenide material), a magnetic material or any other suitable material, has properties (e.g., optical, magnetic or electric properties) that enable the data storage layer to store data. As such, performance characteristics of the data storage layer, and thus of the data storage medium, greatly depend on and are limited by the properties of the material making up the data storage layer.
Limitations similar to those imposed by properties of a material making up a data storage layer of a data storage medium are often found in other types of media used for other purposes, such as, for example, thermal energy storage media for storing thermal energy and sensing media for sensing and detection applications.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improvements in data storage media, thermal energy storage media, sensing media, and other types of media to counter limitations imposed by material properties.